


Is it Marriage Counseling if they aren’t Dating….Yet?

by serrenna



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Background Seungjin, Changbin is not smart, M/M, background chanlix, background jeongsung
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-17 21:27:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29598987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serrenna/pseuds/serrenna
Summary: Changbin needs some help with his crush on Minho or else he may accidentally ruin his chances.
Relationships: Lee Minho | Lee Know/Seo Changbin
Comments: 6
Kudos: 32





	Is it Marriage Counseling if they aren’t Dating….Yet?

~

“Minho!” Changbin pushed himself up onto his tippy toes and widely waved his hand as far above his head as he could in an attempt to make himself as visible as possible. He watched Minho perk up at his name being called and peered through the crowd to finally spot Changbin. Minho gave a quick nod and smile, pushing his way past everyone to get to Changbin. “Congrats. You guys did amazing,” he told Minho, pulling him into a hug right away. “First place. We knew you all could do it.”

“I totally messed up during my solo part though. I’m glad it didn’t cost us.”

“What? Where? I may not be a dancer but there is no way you messed up. Did the other’s say anything?”

“No, they didn’t. But it’s also my part so I think I know when I did something wrong. I guess I just hid it better than I thought I did in the moment.”

“You must have because it looked flawless to me. And you know I would call you out if you messed something up,” Changbin teased.

“I know, that’s why I wasn’t letting any of you see anything ahead of time. Banned you all from the studio, which you are all now formally unbanned,” Minho said.

“So, what’s the plan now? You look like you still need to change,” Changbin mentioned taking in the fact that Minho was still dressed in his stage outfit.

“Yeah, I do. But I wanted to catch up with you first. The group wants to go celebrate the win at the bar down the street. You know the one that’s tucked down the one side street with the tiger out front that Soonyoung’s boyfriend, Seokmin, works at. I guess he booked the bar for us tonight if we won.”

“Of course, I know that one. It’s where we celebrated Jeongin’s graduation at.” Minho nodded, confirming it as he remembered the event. “That sounds amazing. It’s lucky Soonyoung has that connection, you all deserve the chance to celebrate with just the team.”

“Seokmin rarely ever gives us discounts so it’s nice that his spoiling Soonyoung is benefiting the rest of us. Anyways, I was going to head there right after I changed. Walk over with the others, you know.”

“Sure, go right ahead, don’t worry about us. We can all do our celebration afterwards at home. But you should go out with the team first.” Minho’s expression faded slightly at Changbin’s comment, though he didn’t want to worry him and thus kept the smile up.

“Uh, yeah, we can do something at home. I guess I should go change now, don’t want to keep them waiting. I’ll let you know when we are heading home then.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Changbin said not noticing Minho’s change in mood.

“Hey Seungmin,” Minho called out finally acknowledging the other person standing behind Changbin. “Hyunjin should be out in a minute.”

“Thanks. If you pass him, let him know we will be waiting here.” Minho promised he would and left with a final wave.

Seungmin waited until Minho was completely out of sight in the slowly dispersing crowd before hitting Changbin’s shoulder. Changbin flinched and rubbed his shoulder then threatened to punch Seungmin back.

“What the hell was that for?”

“You are such a dumbass.”

“Yes, thank you. That cleared everything up,” Changbin said, tone dripping with sarcasm. “Don’t forget I’m older than you.”

“Older and stupider,” Seungmin retorted.

“Will you quit it with the insults.”

“I will when you stop being such a dumbass. Minho was trying to ask you to go with him.”

“Are you sure? Cause that just sounded to me like he was telling us what he was doing.”

“That’s because you interrupted him. If you hadn’t been immediately sending him off on his own, you would have gotten to the invite portion.”

“How do you know, Hyunjin hasn’t invited you yet.”

“Because he hasn’t gotten out here yet. Why else do you think he was telling you exactly which bar they were going to?” Seungmin was getting quite frustrated at Changbin’s dense behavior.

“So, we knew where they were going in case anything happened or just how far they would be from home? Besides, why would he invite me and leave Jeongin and Jisung behind,” Changbin trailed off as he finally realized that Seungmin was the only other one of their friends there. “When did they leave?” It took all of Seungmin’s will to not facepalm at that.

“I knew you completely forgot about the rest of us. They left right after we decided to wait here. They even said beforehand that they were only coming for the performance and leaving as soon as the event was over. Jisung’s anxiety has been through the roof lately, so they didn’t want to push it too far. They tried to say bye to you, but you barely acknowledged them while you searched for any sign of Minho.”

“Really?” Changbin sheepishly looked to the side, trying to remember them leaving, but came up with nothing. He offered Seungmin a shy shrug. “Oops?”

“Seriously. Didn’t you say you were going to confess to Minho?”

“Yeah, but that was before he got busy preparing for this. I didn’t want to distract him. What if he doesn’t like me? I didn’t want him to have my feelings for him weighing him down.”

“He’s not going to reject you. Out of the eight of us, you are the only one who thinks that. Tell him Jinnie,” Seungmin said to Hyunjin as he walked up behind Changbin.

“Tell him what? That his and Minho’s crush on each other is really annoying since they refuse to do anything about it?” Hyunjin guessed, getting a glare from Changbin and a hug from Seungmin.

“I was more looking for Minho would return his feelings, but that works too. Good job tonight. And congratulations.”

“Yeah, congrats Jin. But you are both wrong.” Hyunjin rolls his eyes and scoffs.

“You only think that because you haven’t heard him whine about his crush on you after dance practice.”

“He also specifically said he came out to see you first tonight. Not us, you. He only paid attention to me being here once you rejected his invite before he could even ask you.”

“Is that why he was so mopey when he came back? How could you Changbin?”

“I didn’t do anything,” Changbin argued. “He just said the crew was going. I figured he was just saying he wasn’t heading home with us. So, I said we would celebrate at home afterwards.”

“How does Chan put up with living with you two?” Hyunjin asked. “Minnie, does this mean you won’t be coming to the bar with us then?”

“Yeah, I’ll pass this time. But don’t let that ruin your fun. I’m going to help Changbin prepare for our private party at home, specifically their apartment. Let the others know please. I’ll let Jeongin know too. Also tell them to text us any food requests. We can either stop at the convenience store or we can order stuff.”

“Should we be home at a specific time then?”

“Probably not. Just how ever long you guys feel is good. However long we can give Jisung to relax beforehand is probably good. So, an hour or two at least is good.” Seungmin waved Hyunjin to lean down closer so he could whisper. “I’m also going to try and talk this one into saying something to Minho tonight.” He had very subtly nudged his thumb towards Changbin who was already eyeing them suspiciously.

“Good luck with that,” Hyunjin whispered back and gave Seungmin a quick peck on the cheek. “Well, I guess I’ll go find some of the others to walk over with. You two be safe going home and we’ll see you in a bit.” Hyunjin gave Seungmin one last hug and rushed back to find some of his teammates to walk with. Seungmin turned back around to Changbin and roughly grabbed his sleeve dragging him out of the building the opposite way from where Hyunjin went.

“Alright, you want to give them a party, let’s go set up for a party. But I expect one thing from you tonight.”

“What’s that.”

“You’re confessing to Minho tonight,” Seungmin said leaving no room for debate.

“How?”

“However you want. There’s no one way to confess to someone. Hyunjin being the drama llama he is, gave me roses every day for a week with little notes on them saying all the things he liked about me. Jisung wrote Jeongin a song, but Jeongin asked him on a date before he finished it. And then of course once Jeongin found out about it, he made Jisung act like they weren’t dating until he finished his confession song and sang it for him.”

“Jeongin was kind of evil for that.”

“Oh, you don’t know the half of it. Jisung was still living with us at that point and Jeongin wouldn’t come over until Jisung finished it. It’s a good thing it only took him a few days to finish. Jeongin’s reasoning was that Jisung originally wanted to confess with it so Jeongin wanted the authentic experience of finding out about his feelings that way.”

“Chan was kind of annoying with his too. I think the only reason he confessed was because he slipped up. At home, whenever he talked to Minho or me about Felix, which was all the time, he constantly referred to him as his soulmate. One day he accidently said that to Felix casually in their conversation. He tried to backtrack and play it off as just friendly, but Felix asked him if that’s how Chan really thought of them and the words just poured out of Chan. If I wasn’t aware that those two already had their own secret language, I would question how Felix understood any of it.”

“Those two are terrible,” Seungmin complained. “Half the time they talk to each other they aren’t even using words, it’s just random sound effects and gestures, the other half is them constantly switching languages. Anyways, how do you want to confess?”

“I don’t know. Why do I have to confess? Why can’t Minho confess to me if you are all so sure he likes me too?”

“Because Minho sucks at words and feelings,” Seungmin said bluntly. Changbin was going to ask him to elaborate on that but they both got text messages first. “Chan just sent me everyone’s requests. What did they send you?”

“Felix just sent me a text that says, ‘You’re dumb’ and a facepalm emoji. Oh, and now he just sent me, ‘You better make this up to him tonight’.” Seungmin started laughing when Changbin showed him the messages.

“Now you’re in trouble, even Lixie is mad at you.”

“I really hate you all,” Changbin said and started walking again.

“Oh, come on, we’ve been putting up with the two of you for a couple years now.” Seungmin jogged to catch up with Changbin once he finished laughing. “Minho finally comes the closest he has come to asking you out and you shoot him down before he can finish. You can’t blame the rest of us for being a little annoyed at you, especially when we all know just how hard you are crushing.”

“What do you mean ‘closest he’s come to asking me out’? Are you implying he’s tried before?”

“Maybe? I know Hyunjin and Felix have mentioned him saying he wants to.”

“So, why hasn’t he?” Changbin asks, fully not believing Seungmin.

“Probably the same reason you haven’t. Too scared of your reaction.” Seungmin shrugged. “Besides, as I said, he sucks at words and feelings.”

“So, because of that, I have to ask him?”

“Well sure. His other method obviously isn’t working so it’s your turn.”

“What other method?”

“You haven’t noticed?” Changbin shakes his head and Seungmin rolls his eyes at that. “He does just about anything for you. He figured he could show you by doing more things for you and then if you liked him back, it would give you a push to saying something.”

“But he does that for everyone. We know that’s how he cares for people.”

“But it’s more with you.” Seungmin pointed out just as they arrived at their apartments. Seungmin let Changbin unlock his apartment and followed him in. Seungmin’s apartment was just across the hall, so he figured he’d just start at Changbin’s. “When was the last time he said he wasn’t making you food, or didn’t prepare you food in advance without a legit reason?”

“I mean, Chan cooks for all three of us sometimes. And there are times the eight of us eat together so Lixie cooks some of those times. Hyunjin too.”

“I’m not counting those. I mean times where you have asked Minho, or you knew you were going to be alone for dinner and Minho texts you that he left you food in the fridge. I also know for a fact he keeps track of your snack supplies and buys more if he’s going to the store and you’re low.”

“Well sure, but I assumed he did the same for Chan and just figured he thought we are terrible at taking care of ourselves without someone helping.” Seungmin just stared at Changbin. “Okay, that last part may be true anyways.”

“You know he also only does half of his morning workout before you get up since he knows you prefer having company when you work out in the mornings. And he picks up a coffee for you when he’s on the way back from the dance studio and delivers it to your studio when you’re working late. And these are just the things I know about because he’s talked about it, or we’ve just noticed him doing it in front of us. Who knows what else he is doing specifically for you that we don’t know about.”

Changbin sat down on the couch while Seungmin went around the apartment checking for what they already had before he checked his own and made their shopping list. He thought about everything Seungmin just told him, all the times Minho went out of his way because Changbin asked him to, or because Minho somehow knew Changbin could use it. Changbin thought of the times Minho brought just him something at work and not Jisung or Chan, but he had assumed it was because Minho didn’t know if they would be there. Which now Changbin thinks about it, doesn’t make sense. It’s not often Changbin works without at least one of the other two being there and Minho knows that. Changbin thinks of the number of time Minho joined them for various outings specifically stating he was there just because of Changbin. Now that he’s been put in the position to think about all these things, he’s not sure how he missed it. Hyunjin even told him once that Minho was late for a class he teaches because Changbin asked him to make him dinner.

“I’m an idiot,” Changbin suddenly announced, flopping over onto his side on the couch.

“Well, that’s not new information, but I’m glad you realized that yourself finally,” Jeongin said standing not far from the couch, helping Seungmin. Changbin, not expecting a response, jumped at the voice and accidently knocked himself off the couch.

“When did you get here?” Changbin asked, rubbing his forehead and nose once he sat back up.

“A few minutes ago. Seungmin said you’ve been zoned out for a little while now.”

“Where is Seungmin?”

“Across the hall grabbing a couple things. We need to go to the store for the rest though. Jisung is taking a nap so I figured I would take some amusement in your crisis here and Seungmin nagged me to help anyways since you weren’t. So, what epiphany did your daydream give you that you finally realized your own stupidity? Seungmin already filled me in about you rejecting Minho.”

“Shut up.” Changbin glared at him. “Seungmin just made me see just how differently Minho treats me to the rest of you.”

“I would ask why you are only just now realizing that, but we all know the answer to that. Instead, I’ll ask what you plan on doing now that you’ve realized it?”

“Seungmin and I think everyone else, says I should confess to him tonight. But I don’t know how to do that. Every time I have thought about it in the past, I just can’t get the words out and end up saying nothing or deflecting.”

“But now you know better how he feels, shouldn’t that change things a little?”

“Maybe? I don’t know. Even just thinking about telling him how I feel makes me all panicky.”

“I know it didn’t seem like it, but when I confessed to Jisung, I was panicking like crazy. I had actually tried two other times but talked myself out of it because I was so nervous. And like you, I knew Jisung liked me, though I wasn’t sure just how far that like went since Jisung always tells everyone he likes them.”

“Is that why you made him finish his song?” Changbin interrupted.

“That was a big part of it, yes. But that’s not the point. The point is, you won’t ever stop being panicked and nervous about it but you have to force yourself to do it anyways or else you never will.”

“So, how did you force yourself to finally say it to Jisung?”

“Kept reminding myself that I couldn’t kiss him quiet if we weren’t dating,” Jeongin replied quite smugly which got Changbin laughing.

“It's Jisung, you still could’ve.”

“Sure, but that would have been torture for both of us. Also, it most likely would have happened in front of other people and no way was I suddenly going to be in a situation to have to have the conversation out in public.”

“Yes, we know. You only have feelings behind closed doors. Heavens forbid you have feelings where someone else can see,” Changbin teased, earning him a shove.

“Jeongin, I have the list if you’re ready to go,” Seungmin announced as he walked back into the apartment. He stopped though when he noticed Changbin sitting on the floor, a lot more coherent looking than he had been when Seungmin left. “Oh, you came back to reality.”

“Yeah. Sorry about that.” Seungmin waved him off.

“We’re heading to the store since most of what they asked for, we don’t have. I’m also going to pick up some stuff we need in my apartment while we’re there, do you want to come with? Or know of anything you want or need?”

“Uh not that I can think of. Do you need me to come along?” Seungmin shakes his head. “Then I’ll probably stay here and do some cleaning.” The apartment wasn’t messy by any means, but it still could use some straightening up. The younger two also understood Changbin was looking for a little bit of alone time so let him be and went to do their shopping without him.

Changbin waited a few minutes after they left to finally pick himself up off of the floor. He couldn’t say he enjoyed cleaning, but he was often the person in their apartment made to clean up as he often lost at rock paper scissors. However, cleaning did give him the chance to think while also keeping himself focused enough on a task to not get too deep into his own mind. He spent his time thinking of all the different ways he could potentially confess tonight and all the ways it would go wrong and a few of the ways it could go right too. He knew most of these scenarios were massive exaggerations and were unlikely to happen but that didn’t stop them from making him panic more. Changbin was interrupted from his thoughts though by a knocking on the door. He glanced up at the clock realizing just how much time had passed and figured it might be Seungmin and Jeongin back already and thus was surprised to see Jisung standing outside the apartment door.

“Hey,” Jisung greeted once Changbin opened the door. “Chan says that as Minho’s self-proclaimed best friend, that I am under contractual obligation to remind you that you are an idiot.” Changbin stared blankly at him.

“What?”

“That’s what Chan said.” Jisung pulled out his phone and showed Changbin the text message he quoted almost verbatim. “Chan hasn’t told me why yet, but I’m taking his word for it. So, what did you do?”

Changbin sighed but let Jisung into the apartment to the couch so they weren’t talking in the doorway and filled him in on everything. “Why would you do that?”

“I really honestly didn’t know.”

“Okay, but you’ve been crushing on him for a long time. Why wouldn’t you at least wait until he said it?”

“I think I was just mentally going somewhere between not wanting to be let down by him sending me home and not wanting him to worry about going to party with the team instead of with us.”

“You try to protect both of your feelings and in the end, you had it wrong. You know that’s usually Chan’s brand of luck.” Changbin groaned and hit Jisung with a pillow.

“That’s not helpful.”

“I never said it was.” Changbin raises the pillow again. “But I can help if you want.” Jisung flinched away from Changbin ready to get hit again at any moment. Instead Changbin lowers the pillow slightly and gestures for him to continue talking. “You’re overthinking the confession. Seungmin, and Jeongin to a degree, put the idea of something grand in your head because that’s what we did. And that’s often what you think when you want to do something for Minho. That everything has to have meaning and be special and be what you think he deserves and then you back out because you think you can’t give him that. But you get so focused on that you forget if that is what Minho wants.”

“Hey, I’m always thinking about the things Minho wants,” Changbin argued.

“I don’t mean it like that. Minho doesn’t care about the big gestures or surprises or what others think he deserves. You look at him and think he deserves the world and someone who can give it to him because you can’t, but he doesn’t want the world. So, what is the point of trying to give him something he doesn’t want? What I’m saying is, don’t go big, don’t go grand, and most importantly don’t overthink it. A simple moment alone and to just talk and put your feelings out there will mean more to him then anything else. And if you don’t believe me, just think of his way of showing it to you. He doesn’t make big gestures or go over the top, it’s the simple things to show he cares and wants to care for you too.”

“That,” Changbin paused and let out a big breath, “That was actually kind of helpful. I don’t know that it’s going to calm my nerves but it’s probably good to remind myself I don’t need anything other than saying it.”

“Right. You both know there is something between you two, but you can’t actually go further until it’s out in the open. And until you do you keep risking having nights like tonight where you are both miserable because you couldn’t communicate what you actually wanted and accidentally hurt yourselves.”

“Thanks, Jisung.”

“Are you two done yet?” Seungmin asked when he and Jeongin let themselves into the apartment, shopping bags in tow.

“What are you even doing awake? I thought you were taking a nap, not giving Changbin yet another round of marriage counseling,” Jeongin said to Jisung.

“Don’t you have to be married first for that?” Changbin asked but was ignored.

“I was, but I woke up and Chan had texted me too, so I came up to maybe be helpful. I’m okay, I promise. It’s not been that long.” Jeongin stared him down, trying to determine if he believed him or not while Jisung just gave him a pleading look. It wouldn’t be the first time Jisung tried to downplay how bad his anxiety was just to not worry Jeongin, but he was getting better at being upfront about it with Jeongin.

“Alright. But if you at all feel like you’re getting worse, we’re going home.” Jisung brightened up at Jeongin’s words and pulled him down to for a kiss, much to Jeognin’s dismay, and a promise that he would tell the younger if there was a problem. Jeongin gave him a glare that didn’t phase Jisung one bit and was about to complain when Jisung stopped him.

“It’s not PDA if it’s not in public.”

Changbin decided at that point it was more beneficial for him to leave them alone and help Seungmin with the snacks he bought.

“You bought a lot.”

“They had a lot of requests. Chan is even ordering take out when they leave the bar too, hoping the timing works out.”

“I don’t think we’re going to finish everything tonight.”

“Probably not but give it a week max and it’ll all be gone,” Seungmin said with a small laugh. “So, did talking to Jisung help at all?”

“It did. Talking to all three of you has helped honestly. Thanks for that.”

“You know we all want you both happy, so I hope it was enough.”

“We’ll see. I will at least try. I can’t promise more than that. But please, don’t push it on me too much. I still want to enjoy celebrating their victory tonight.” Seungmin agreed and made sure the other two did as well when they rejoined them back in the living room. They just had to entertain themselves until the rest joined them now.

Much later into the evening, the party had come to a steady end with them all slowly crashing throughout the apartment. Jisung and Jeongin were curled up on the couch fast asleep. Hyunjin and Seungmin were sprawled out on the floor, Hyunjin still just barely awake on his phone, Seungmin sleeping on him. And Chan and Felix retired to Chan and Changbin’s room not that long ago. Changbin was in the living room, sitting in front of the window, zoning out a bit just watching the city. He didn’t hear Minho until he moved another chair to be able to sit next to him.

“Hey,” Minho said quietly.

“Hey, I thought you went to bed.”

“No, I just went to take a shower finally.” He pointed to his wet hair as proof. “Everyone else asleep?”

“Pretty much. What about you? Planning on stay awake for a while still?”

“For now. I think part of my brain still has some adrenaline going but I’m also sure if I went to bed it wouldn’t be too long before I fell asleep. Though after the busy and crazy day, it’s nice to just have some quiet time to relax.”

“Ah. I can stay quiet if you want. I mean that’s what I was doing anyways,” Changbin offered.

“Bin. Quiet and complete silence are not the same thing. If I were going to have a problem with some light conversation, I would have gone to my room. The company is nice too.”

“If you’re sure. But don’t be afraid to tell me to shut up.”

“Don’t offer things you might later regret,” Minho teased with a smirk. “Anyway, which room did Chan and Felix escape to?”

“Chan and I’s. Felix was already mostly asleep, Chan basically carried him to bed.”

“Is that why you’re still up then?” Changbin looked over to see Minho giving a little smirk and eyebrow wiggle.

“No.” Changbin quickly shut down Minho’s silent suggestion. “You know they never make it seem like I can’t go in my own room.”

“True. I wonder when they’ll decide they want their own place.”

“Chan has brought it up a couple times, but I think he’s waiting to be able to pull a Jisung.” Minho scoffed.

“At this point, he may as well try to buy the building. We already take up three apartments, and he wants a fourth?”

“It’s not like he owns two of those apartments. He’s just the reason we all live here. And I think that’s why. He likes the apartment and it’s really convenient for work, but most importantly, we’re all here. I know one of the reasons they haven’t looked at moving is because Chan worries with his schedule, Felix would feel alone too often. So, staying here either in a new apartment in the building or staying as we are, Felix has all of us around when Chan isn’t.”

“You know, we could solve the problem for him if we moved out.”

“You want to move out!” Minho immediately shushed Changbin, pointing to their sleeping friends. “You want to move out?” Changbin repeated, much quieter this time.

“Not particularly. I’m just saying it’s an option. This really is Chan’s place and we’re just the roommates, if we moved out, Felix and Chan could have the apartment to themselves and they still have the other four right here.”

“I mean sure, but are you thinking of living alone then?”

“No.”

“Then with who?”

“Changbin.” Minho sighed. “I did say we move out,” Minho said stressing the ‘we’.

“I know, but that doesn’t tell me what you are thinking.” Minho stared blankly at him for a moment. 

“Bin, sometimes you are just so…so,” Minho pauses. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but dumb.”

“I’ve actually been told that a lot tonight.” Changbin sheepishly laughs at himself.

“Anyway, if Chan and Felix aren’t the reason you’re up. Then what is the reason?” Minho asked, changing the subject.

“Just too many thoughts running through my head to bother trying to sleep yet.”

“Anything you want to share? That helps sometimes you know.”

“Yes,” Changbin sighed. “But that’s also part of the problem.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t know how to say it aloud. And it kind of scares me.”

“It scares you?”

“Yeah.” Changbin goes quiet again keeping his focus to the floor. Minho debates on nudging him to elaborate but decides to wait for Changbin to do it on his own. “If I can even say it aloud, then things will change. I hope for the better, but I fear everyone is wrong and I’ll lose something important. But if I don’t say anything, then I may lose it anyways.”

“What is it you risk losing?” Minho sat forward in his chair, leaning in closer to Changbin. “Changbin?” Minho slowly reached over and took Changbin’s hand, lacing their fingers together.

“You.” It was barely a whisper, but Minho heard it anyway. Minho couldn’t stop the soft smile or light chuckle he gave at Changbin’s response. He reached over with his other hand and cupped the side of Changbin’s face and forced him to look up and at him.

“Don’t you think I should have a say in whether you lose me or not?” Changbin’s eyes went wide, almost comically so.

“Of course.”

“So, I take it, you have something you want to tell me. What is it?” Minho urged, keeping his hand soft but firmly on Changbin’s cheek. “Changbin, what do you want to say?”

Changbin tried to look away but Minho wouldn’t let him, so instead he closed his eyes and took a deep but shaky breath. “I,” He started but stopped and tried again after another breath. “I like you.” He opened his eyes to see Minho’s reaction, but Minho wasn’t giving him anything. “I’ve liked you for a couple years now.”

“If you’ve liked me for a couple years, why did you wait so long to say something?”

“I was scared you didn’t see me like that, but I’ve had the others drill it into my head tonight, that you actually might. You just have your own way of saying it.” Minho softened his expression again.

“They’re right. I do. I’ve been trying to tell you for a while now. I just couldn’t do it with words.”

“I know that now.”

“Now that we’re both know, would you let me take you on a date soon? That way I can really show you how much I like you in return.” Changbin smiled and nodded as well as he could.

“I would like that.”

“Good.”

“You know,” a voice spoke up from behind them, breaking them from the moment. “I’m happy for you both and glad we won’t have to deal with you two pining after each other anymore. But some of us are trying to sleep. Could you go have feelings elsewhere?” Hyunjin asked.


End file.
